What Are Cookies?

A cookie is a text file sent by a web server – a device where one or more websites are stored – to a web browser, and stored by the browser. The text file is then sent back to the web server each time the web browser requests a page from the web server. This enables the web server to identify and track the web browser and provide richer user experiences for visitors to a web site.

Currently, we use cookies on this website to count the numbers of visitors and understand how to serve our visitors and customers better. We may install and use various plugins or extensions that help enrich the experience of using this website, and which may also use additional cookies, to, for example, monitor how successful each plugin or extension is, or further count the number of times a plugin or extension is used. In this way, those providers can measure the effectiveness of their solutions and make changes to improve their products. We use Google Analytics to analyse the use of this website. Google Analytics generates anonymous statistical and other information about website use by means of cookies, which are stored on users’ computers. The information generated relating to our website is used to create reports about the use of the website. Google will store this information. Google’s privacy policy is available at: http://www.google.com/privacypolicy.html

Below is a full list of cookies that we currently use on this website at the time of writing this update:

__utma, __utmb, __utmc, __utmz = from Google Analytics. These cookies are installed in a visitor’s web browser when they agree to have cookies stored on their web access device. These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our website. We can then use the resulting data to generate reports that can help us improve the website experience. These cookies collect data anonymously; the resulting information allows us to identify the number of visitors who have come to the website, where visitors have come from, and which web pages visitors viewed while on our website.

Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies. For example, in Internet Explorer you can refuse all cookies by clicking: “Tools” & “Internet Options” & “Privacy”, and selecting “Block all cookies” using the sliding selector. This choice will, however, have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites, including this one.

Most browser companies provide instructions on disabling cookies on their web sites. The most popular browser companies are listed below;